1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flying head slider for flying a head that reads data from and writes data to a disk shaped storage medium and to a disk storage apparatus in which the flying head slider is used. More specifically, the head slider includes positive pressure generating surfaces, which have shapes that would enable a flexible design, while ensuring stiffness in pitch direction and in roll direction. Steps, which are lower in height than the positive pressure generating surface, are on an air inflow side of the positive pressure generating surface and extend from a front side of the slider toward side edges thereof in order to prevent dust particles from entering into an area between the flying head slider and a disk plate and to ensure stable fly height characteristics.
2. Description of Related Art
FIGS. 10A, 10B are explanatory diagrams showing an example of a configuration of a flying head slider of a prior art, which is incorporated into a hard disk drive. FIG. 10A is a perspective view, and FIG. 10B is a plane view. Furthermore, FIG. 11 is a plane view showing an example of a configuration of a hard disk drive of a prior art. In order to describe an internal configuration of the hard disk drive in FIG. 11, a cover, which is not shown in the figure, has been removed.
A flying head slider 51 includes a positive pressure generating surface 53; a step 54, which is a shallow groove at a lower height than the positive pressure generating surface 53; and a recess 55, which is a deep groove at a lower height than the step 54; all of which are on a face that faces a disk 52 in FIG. 11.
The hard disk drive 56 includes a head actuator 59. The head actuator 59 includes a suspension 57, which supports the flying head slider 51 on a tip side, and an arm main body 58, on which the suspension 57 is secured.
The arm main body 58 of the head actuator 59 is fitted on a pivot 60, which is an axis, in a rotatable manner. Furthermore, the head actuator 59 is rotationally driven by a voice coil motor 61, which is placed on an opposite side of the suspension 57 with the pivot 60 sandwiched in between.
When the disk 52 is rotated by a spindle motor, which is not shown in the figure, a positive pressure is generated at the positive pressure generating surface 53 and generates a lifting force away from the disk 52 as a result of an air flow that accompanies the rotation of the disk 52. A negative pressure is generated at a negative pressure generating area 62, which is a shaded area in the recess 55, and generates a pulling force toward the disk 52. In this configuration, a stable fly height is achieved by a balance of forces among a load of the suspension 57, which presses the flying head slider 51 toward the disk 52; the positive pressure; and the negative pressure.
Furthermore, the voice coil motor 61 rotates the head actuator 59 and moves the flying head slider 51 between an inner edge and an outer edge of the disk 52 in order to record or reproduce information.
In the mean time, in the hard disk drive 56 the head actuator 59 rotates and moves the flying head slider 51 between the inner edge and the outer edge of the disk 52, while the disk 52 is maintained at a constant revolution speed. For this reason, a speed of the air flow varies depending on whether the flying head slider 51 is at the inner edge of the disk 52 or at the outer edge of the disk 52. Furthermore, because the flying head slider 51 moves as a result of a rotational operation of the head actuator 59, an angle of the flying head slider 51, which is called a skew angle, with respect to the air flow also varies depending on whether the flying head slider 51 is at the inner edge of the disk 52 or at the outer edge.
Therefore, shapes of, for example, the positive pressure generating surface of the flying head slider of the prior art is designed to achieve a constant flying height (CFH) and to improve skew dependence characteristics and linear speed dependence characteristics.
In other words, instead of a positive pressure generating surface 53, which has a straight edge on the air inflow side, as shown on the flying head slider 51 in FIG. 10a, a flying head slider may have a projection on the air inflow side of the positive pressure generating surface. (For example, see the Patent Document 1.)    Patent Reference Document 1    Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-60373